Connect to a DB hosted in Kubernetes

In production, DBs are not usually hosted in Kubernetes, but there might be some use cases for Dev or mock environments where DBs are hosted inside Kubernetes. Let’s see how er can connect to this DB using CLI or any Database tools like Datagrip, Dbeaver etc…

Contents

1. Connect from CLI
2. Connect from Webstorm or Datagrip

The approach I am going to be using will be port forwarding. Since SSH or SSL connection methods are not supported yet, port forwarding is the way to go for now. So when I say port forwarding, I will be forwarding the 5432 port of my local machine to the 5432 port of the Kubernetes pod. So, any request to my local 5432 port will be redirected to the 5432 port of the pod in Kubernetes. So, once the port forwarding is in place just connect to the DB pointing to localhost and 5432 port.

• 5432 is the post in the pod where Postgres is hosted
• 5432 is the port where the Postgres is hosted, if you are using another port, use that port accordingly
• Any available local port can be used to forward to the pod (ones which are not restricted by the OS)

Connect from CLI

Use the following command to forward the port from the CLI. I am assuming that you are already connected to Kubernetes from your local machine, ie kubectl is already configured.

kubectl --kubeconfig=/Users/<usernamer>/.kube/config port-forward <pod-name> --namespace=<namespace> 5432:5432

• You can get the pod name using the command kubectl get pods
• You can add this command to your boot script so that it is run when your machine is powered on
• Alternatively, you can create an alias for this command so that you can forward the port by running a short alias command.

Once the port is forwarded, just go ahead and connect to the DB by using the hostname as localhost and the port as 5432 (or the port you have specified in the forwarding command)

Connect from Webstorm or Datagrip

Since I use Webstorm, the following is the config I use, I find this optimal. Basically, I add the port forwarding command in the Startup Tasks config in Webstorm, so that whenever I open my project the startup task is run and the port is automatically forwarded.

Startup Tasks can be found in Settings > Tools > Startup Tasks

Following is the configuration I use in Startup Tasks

• Script text: The port ford command

kubectl --kubeconfig=/Users/<usernamer>/.kube/config port-forward <pod-name> --namespace=<namespace> 5432:5432

• Working directory: Path of the project
• Execute in terminal enabling this would result in a terminal window popping up every time I open this project. I recommend leaving this unchecked, you will be able to see the status in the run options on the top right.

Once the port is forwarded, just go ahead and connect to the DB by using the hostname as localhost and the port as 5432 (or the port you have specified in the forwarding command)

That’s all folks, happy hacking 🙌